Prayer vigil planned at site of proposed strip club

For the owners of a proposed strip club in Chanceford Township, York County, it hasn’t been an easy couple of weeks.

First, they faced a crowd of angry community members who came in droves to a planning commission meeting two weeks ago to oppose the establishment and its live, nude female dancers.

An anti strip club Facebook page created about the issue, “Citizens Against Strip Club,” already has 365 members.

At 7 p.m. May 23, the zoning hearing board will mull whether the establishment — innocuously named “The Office”— is welcome in the township based on the law of the land.

A similar crowd is likely to return in opposition.

But before that can happen, some York County Christians plan to pray that Terry Sutton, who submitted the application for the adult venue, receives intervention from a higher power.

“We have been praying about this for weeks now,” said Pastor Daniel Warner of Antioch 1611 Baptist Church in Stewartstown. “God can move mountains. God can do way more than any human being can do.”

Warner, along with other York County Christians, plans to hold a prayer vigil 4 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the Brogue Center strip mall at 2512 Delta Road, the site of the proposed adult cabaret.

The effort was organized by Joanne Colyer, who said she was motivated by a vision.

“I would wake up in the middle of the night and see these people holding hands and praying,” said Colyer, 36, of Chanceford. “As Christians, we need to really stand up for what we believe but also have others see Christ through us instead of just standing at a commissioning board yelling at someone.”

Warner agreed. Praying is much more productive than protesting, he said.

“Having a protest is like using a BB gun,” he said. “Talking to God about the situation is like using a howitzer, a cannon.”

Sutton, president of Alliance Commercial Realty in York, could not be reached for comment on this issue.Earlier this month, he told residents at a planning commission meeting that the 148-seat club would not be a nuisance to the rural township. It would bring jobs, he said.He promised to enforce rules in the BYOB establishment, banning patrons under age 21.

Adult-oriented facilities, he said, are permitted in general commercial zones but must be approved through special exception by the township’s zoning hearing board.

Those with plans for the prayer vigil Sunday say the Bible and its moral fabric - especially for the church-going community - supercedes any zoning codes.

“I believe that anybody that professes to be a Christian should be there to pray against this type of business, being in a conservative family-oriented community,” said Carmine Pantano. “By definition, this destroys families.”

Pantano, 37, lives a quarter-mile away from the Brogue Center.

“We need to be praying in a positive manner for the people involved and their personal relationship with God,” he said. “We are supposed to judge righteously another man’s actions. If somebody is doing something that is contrary to God, we’re not supposed to go along with it.”

Penny Snyder, 39, of nearby Lower Chanceford, learned about the proposed strip club initially from her 12-year-old son, who heard about it at school.

Snyder, who has four children, said she wants to raise them in “God’s country with morals and values.”

“For them to have to drive by a sign on a main road, it’s just anther extra battle for Christian parents,” she said.

Sutton has said the buiding will feature no obvious signage displaying what’s contained therein.

Russell Cullum, 69, of Chanceford, quoted the book of Matthew.

“If a man is looking at a woman to lust on her, he has already committed adultery in his heart,” he said.

Cullum lives on Workinger Road, also near the proposed adult venue.

“This whole thing is a sin, but they’re trying to promote it as a legitimate business,” he said. “There might not be power in the local government to stop it, but certainly God has the power to stop it.”